Friday, May 6, 2011

This week's jazz picks for Minneapolis-St. Paul

Tune to KBEM every Friday morning at 8:30 to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about the week's jazz picks and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web.

"Corner Jazz" host Maryann Sullivan sat in for Ed this morning. It's always a pleasure to speak with Maryann.Starting tomorrow night, I'll be doing a weekly live jazz calendar on her radio show. "Corner Jazz," which airs every Saturday from 8–11 p.m.

Friday: Red Planet on teevee

Red Planet—Dean Magraw (guitar), Chris Bates (bass), and Jay Epstein (drums)—will be on Twin Cities’ Public Television’sAlmanac tonight. The show starts at 7, and I don’t know exactly when they’ll make their appearance, but they might play something by Coltrane or Hendrix. Consider it a sneak peak of next week’s CD release at the AQ for Space Dust, which happens Friday and Saturday.

A lot of people I know are reading Jay Goetting’s new book, Joined at the Hip: A History of Jazz in the Twin Cities. It's our first-ever history of jazz, just out from the Minnesota Historical Society Press. AQ owner Kenny Horst will open a bit early on Saturday for a meet-and-greet, Q&A, and signing with Goetting and the author of the book’s forward, the legendary broadcaster Leigh Kamman.

According to Jay Goetting, when Wynton Kelly first heard keyboardist Bobby Lyle play (Lyle was then 16), Kelly looked up and exclaimed, “Who the f*** is that?” A few years and many notes later, Lyle is one of the great pianist/organists. I can’t say I love his smooth jazz outings—truth be told, smooth jazz makes my teeth hurt—but when he plays it straight ahead, he’s the man.

Drummer and Grammy winner Goodwin is here for a workshop at MacPhail on Wednesday, which explains his midweek appearance at the AQ. A founding member of the Phil Woods Quartet, Goodwin has played with biggies like Bill Evans, Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Joe Williams, and Tony Bennett. He’ll appear with New York saxophonist Adam Niewood and area musicians Bryan Nichols, Gordy Johnson (first set), and Adam Linz (second set). This could be one for the next jazz history book.